Ep. 58: Boundary Setting and Parenting Your Teen with Signe Darpinian

Anna Lutz and Elizabeth Davenport have a conversation with Signe Darpinian, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist about the importance of boundaries and trust when it comes to helping our children cultivate a peaceful relationship with food and body. Signe is also the co-author of No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom as well as the forthcoming book How to Raise Body Positive Teens: A Parent’s Guide to Diet-Free Living, Exercise and Body Image.

They discuss:

The juxtaposition between an overall increase in eating disorder awareness, and the increased normalization of disordered eating behaviors that is inherent within diet culture.
How boundary setting is generally challenging, but especially when it comes to food.
Emotional regulation with teens & pre-teens, and getting consent before giving advice.
A control model versus a trust model.
How interfering with our teens’ dietary intake breaks down their natural ability to eat intuitively.
When parents make it clear that we trust our children to listen to their bodies it is supportive and creates a sense of safety.

Links:

Signe Darpinian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, and host of Therapy Rocks! a personal growth podcast. She is also the co-author of No Weigh! A Teen’s Guide to Positive Body Image, Food, and Emotional Wisdom and Raising Body Positive Teens: A Parent’s Guide to Diet-Free Living, Exercise and Body Image, both with Jessica Kingsley Publishers in London, and provides tele-health therapy services in the state of California.

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